The present invention relates to an apparatus for retaining a cover or liner to a wheel where the wheel has a dropped center.
The manufacturers of trucks, recreational vehicles, tow trucks, buses and other large vehicles generally do not provide covers for the central portion of the wheels of the vehicles they manufacture. Nonetheless, it has become common in recent years for the owners of large vehicles, even large semi-tractors, to improve the appearance of their respective vehicles by covering the unsightly central portion of the wheel with wheel covers provided by a number of after market manufacturers.
Since large vehicles are not provided with wheel covers by their respective manufacturers, the wheels for such vehicles do not have ridges or clamps to which the wheel cover can be attached and wheel cover manufactures have, therefore, been required to develop products which attach to the functional portions of the wheel. The most common method for installing the wheel covers to such wheels is to provide holes in the cover or holes in an adapter which is attachable to the cover, where the holes are positioned to receive the studs which retain the wheel to the hub of the vehicle. The wheel liner is, therefore, retained to the wheel by the same lug nuts which retain the wheel to the hub.
Certain states, such as California, require that trucks traveling on open roads be subject to having the webs of their wheels routinely examined for cracks in the vicinity of the lug nuts. The inspection requires removal of any wheel covers or retainers which are fitted under the lug nuts. The lug nuts of such large vehicles are generally tightened by pneumatic machines which are not available on the open road and, therefore, the inspection of truck wheels having covers attached by the lug nuts must be taken off the open road to a location where the lug nuts can be removed.
Wheel covers have also been attached to vehicle wheels by providing a retainer which is attached under the bolts retaining an oil cover across the distal end of the hub which extends through the center of the wheel. Such retainers, however, require that portions of the oil cover at the distal end of the hub be removed to attach the retainer. One such attachment is disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,313.
Besides the bolts retaining the oil cover to the axle hub and the lug nuts which retain the wheel to the axle, there are other functional elements to which a wheel cover can be attached. In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,635, I disclosed a method and apparatus whereby a wheel cover or wheel liner is attachable to a wheel having hand holes.
Although lug nuts are a standard functional element common to all wheels, not every wheel has hand holes. Wheels which mount tubeless tires, however, all have dropped centers between the open end of the wheel and the web of the wheel to facilitate attachment of the tire thereto. Since tires come in common sizes, wheels which retain liked-size tires have similar dropped centers. Accordingly, an attachment for retaining a wheel cover to a wheel which engages the dropped center thereof will be retainable to any wheel intended to receive a given size tire. It would, therefore, be beneficial to provide an attachment which utilizes the dropped center of a wheel to retain the cover thereto.
Briefly, the present invention is embodied in a cover for a vehicle wheel of the type having a generally tubular body with a first open end and a second end with a web having holes suitable for attachment to the hub of an axle, and a dropped center positioned midway between the first end and the second end of the wheel, the drop center forming an inner annular shoulder.
The cover for attachment thereto has a generally cylindrical body with an open end and a web end. The inner surface of the web end is adapted to fit against the web of the wheel, and a plurality of retainers are spaced around the inner surface of the web of the cover to retain the cover to the wheel. Each retainer includes a moveable hook having a first end, a second end and a central body extending from the first end to the second end. A guide on each of the retainers retains the hook oriented with the first end directed toward the axis of the wheel cover and the second end extending radially outward therefrom. Each hook is axially moveable with respect to the wheel cover with the movement of the central body of the hook being restricted by a U-shaped guide attached to the cover.
In the preferred embodiment, the U-shaped guide serves as a fulcrum around which the central body of a hook is pivotable. An adjustment bolt between the web of the wheel cover and the hook is used to axially move the central body of the hook with respect to the wheel cover. Rotation of the adjusting bolt in one direction brings the hook into engagement with the drop center of the wheel for retaining the wheel cover to the wheel and rotation the bolt in the opposite direction brings the hook out of engagement with the drop center, thereby releasing the cover from the wheel.